How do you check for your blind spots?

I can guarantee you that whenever I go to visit my 3-year-old nephew, the topic of cars will come up. You see, cars are his thing. I’ll ask what he’s done that day, he’ll say ‘played with cars’. I’ll speak to him about what happened at nursery the day before and he’ll mention cars somehow. Last month, he visited the London Transport Museum and I asked him what he did – ‘looked at some cars’ was the reply as I’m sure you can imagine.

And the thing is, I’m not surprised at all. Because when you’ve got a ‘thing’, it becomes easy to see almost everything through that lens.

We had a visiting speaker come to Church recently who works with the persecuted church in Pakistan. He was preaching on a particular passage, and the tone of the talk? The persecuted church.

You see, it’s how we’re wired. For some of us, we’ll know without a shadow of a doubt that we’re called to a particular place or a particular passion

Have you got a lens? Something which you tend to see other things through simply because that’s what lights up your heart and soul?

Keep talking about it, walking it out, sharing it…

But also take some time to think about your blind spots.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for strength-based leadership and doing what it is that makes us, ‘us’. But it’s also important to note that we can have a tendency to overlook certain areas when we’re trapped by tunnel vision.

That’s why I love the Proverbs 31 Woman.

She wasn’t so bound by her responsibilities as wife and mother, that she didn’t recognise the potential she had to be entrepreneurial. Likewise, she didn’t see her business ventures as something which would get in the way of her serving and loving on her family.

I’ve been talking about both/and over either/or a LOT lately. Especially in light of my word of the year being balance. Because believe me, if I didn’t understand the importance of balance, ALL I would do is work… it’s how I’m wired.

We’re all wired to follow our God-given calling and passion after all. And since work for me is mobilising women to do what it is that God is calling them to whilst writing and sharing my message on the internet, I could just do it continually.

But where would that leave me as a wife, sister, daughter, auntie, friend, church volunteer etc? Nowhere worth being is the short answer.

So, the Proverbs 31 Woman. Can we be real with each other? I kind of get annoyed with her…

It’s because I kind of feel like she’s the sort of woman who has a home cooked dinner on the table on time, everyday despite running multiple businesses and having multiple kids. And I just read the passages and find myself thinking ‘but how is this even real though?’

The good news?

It’s not. Kind of. Many of us will know that the description of this ‘wonder woman’ isn’t describing an actual living, breathing human being – and so let’s all share a collective sigh of relief. But, what is it then? Well quite simply, it’s a mother teaching her son the Hebrew alphabet with a bit of multi-tasking thrown in to help him understand what to look for in a good woman.

The list is actually pretty encouraging. It doesn’t depict a woman chained to the kitchen sink with 14 kids running around her ankles, and nor does it show us a power-suited CEO who has no time for anything but work.

It shows us all of those things and I think it’s intentional.

Yes, stay in your lane. But be okay with knowing that the scenery will change from time to time.

Fearlessly following your calling doesn’t make you a bad wife/sister/mum/friend etc in the same way that setting boundaries around your working hours so that you can spend time with your family doesn’t make you a lazy Entrepreneur or employee.

I think that this is what the Proverbs 31 Woman teaches us, plus plenty more besides, which is why I’m DELIGHTED to be diving into these passages in more depth in my brand new study ‘Present-Day Proverbs 31’.

It’s time to shatter the illusions about what women ‘should’ be and do and instead, understand that with God at the forefront of our lives, we get to have options.

Want to explore worth and work for today’s Christian woman? Step right this way and join us as we dive into reflections, discussion and action prompted by this infamous passage of scripture.

To dive into the Proverbs 31 study, click the button below.

I coach, write, teach and run programs which infuse practical strategies with Biblical principles (which I personally think is the best rule of thumb for success.) I moved from a 7-year High School teaching career, to building and scaling my business after starting out as a hobby-status blogger in 2011. Within months, I was able to go totally full time and haven't looked back. My success, as someone who previously would have never seen myself as an entrepreneur means that I'm now beyond passionate about business being an expression of Kingdom-building here on earth. Hobby status and inconsistent feast to famine months aren't cutting it for you anymore right? You're meant for a business which has faith as your foundation AND soars with success. That's where I come in.